1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to: an image forming apparatus that transmits images for printing to have it printed (displayed) on electronic paper loaded on an electronic paper storage; an electronic paper printing method to be implemented by the image forming apparatus; and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium with an electronic paper printing program being stored thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
There has been known an image forming apparatus that is not only capable of printing on ordinary paper, images for printing received from personal computers and document images obtained by its scanner, for example, but also capable of transferring the same to electronic paper to have it displayed thereon.
When preparing handouts of electronic paper for multiple users by using such an image forming apparatus, an operator user would be required to make sure how many sheets of electronic paper to share are available; then, specify by using a driver on his/her personal computer, how many sheets of electronic paper will be actually necessary and transmit images for printing to the image forming apparatus, so that the image forming apparatus can transfer them for printing to electronic paper to have it displayed thereon. Alternatively, after making sure how many sheets of electronic paper are available, he/she would be required to specify how many sheets of electronic paper will be actually necessary by operating an operation panel of the image forming apparatus and obtain document images with a scanner of the image forming apparatus, so that the image forming apparatus can transfer them to electronic paper to have it displayed thereon.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-316925, there has been an image display method for the purpose of improving the user-friendliness when a user hopes to display images stored on a portable terminal apparatus, in a preferred layout onto a large-screen display apparatus such as a television or personal computer; and in this method, it is judged whether or not a terminal apparatus 200 is in contact with an image display 101 of a display apparatus 100; if it is in contact therewith, the terminal apparatus 200 transmits specified images to the display apparatus 100; the display apparatus 100 adjusts the layout of the specified images on the basis of the contact state of the terminal apparatus 200, indicating whether or not it is in contact with the image display 101.
Prior to the invention, there had been a problem such that it is extremely troublesome to prepare electronic paper handouts for multiple users because of its user-friendliness, i.e.; an operator user is required to specify how many sheets of electronic paper will be actually necessary, either by using a driver of his/her personal computer or by operating an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, after making sure how many sheets of electronic paper are available, as described above.
Unfortunately, the invention described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-316925 did not provide any perfect solution to the problem mentioned above.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.